The Political Economy of the American West
Terry L Anderson editor Peter J Hill editor
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Rowman & Littlefield
Published:29th Mar '94
Currently unavailable, our supplier has not provided us a restock date
In the American West, trappers, miners, and farmers often preceded the formal institutions of government and therefore had to invent their own institutional framework. Early historians like Frederick Jackson Turner and Walter Prescott Webb found heroes in this romantic frontier. Modern historians, however, are challenging the traditional histories, arguing that the history of the West is one of natural resource waste, minority exploitation, and political manipulation by a powerful elite. This book challenges many conclusions from both schools in a framework that considers Western history as an episode in the evolution of property rights. The authors in this volume provide a new way of thinking about the West that relies neither on heroes nor villains but argues that economics and politics shaped the institutional environment of the American West.
There's lots . . . of interest in this book . . . organized to appeal ecumenically to like minded but methodologically-varied practitioners of economics, political science and history. * Public Choice *
These economic perspectives on Western history are less ideological and more interesting than many such treatments. * Books Of The South West *
. . . [E]ach of the essays present logically tight arguments, supported by contemporary and historical literature, as well as empirical data. Equally important, the essays are . . . well written and accessible to either experts or novices in the field. Therefore, the time of western historians and natural resource policy scholars would be well spent in examining this volume. . . .The strength of the scholarship and the intriguing character of the arguments contained in this volume warrant its admission into the marketplace of interpretations about the West and the people who have inhabited it. * Western Historical Quarterly *
For comprehensive collections serving graduate and faculty audiences. * CHOICE *
ISBN: 9780847679119
Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 25mm
Weight: 454g
180 pages